Tag Archives: Lambeth Living

Since the problems of occupation and anti-social behaviour in summer 2009 the TRA has worked with local councillors, Community Safety and the Coldharbour Safer Neighbourhood Team to address the problem and put measures into place to prevent it reoccurring.

Last year the exclusion zone covering Southwyck House was actively enforced and a mobile police station was set up on Moorlands Road for two weeks.

Since then we have conducted walkabouts with all the above, along with crime prevention design specialists and estate officers from Lambeth Living. As a result of those some changes and improvements have been made to the structure and environment of Southwyck House.

These include: the “lookout posts” at each end of the car block have been fenced off; railings and walls have been either raised or lowered to discourage loitering; “kissing gates” have been put in passageways to prevent moped/motorcycle riding; rolling bars have been added to existing gates and fences to prevent climbing in; lines of sight for CCTV have been cleared and we are pressing for our whole system to be upgraded to much clearer and faster digital imaging, monitoring and storage.

As a result of this work I am sure we all felt a vast improvement this year. We all have a right to walk freely around our estate without any sense of uncertainty.

If any of you feel that is not that case, at any time, for any reason, then call our SNT and tell them about it, or come to one of their monthly surgeries and discuss it with them. In any situation that feels urgent dial 999.

A brief history of Southwyck House

Known locally as the 'Barrier Block,' Southwyck House was built in the early 1980s, with its stark façade created as a result of a proposed motorway scheme above Coldharbour Lane.

The Barrier Block was designed to protect the Somerleyton Estate from the inevitable pollution and traffic noise, which explains its tiny windows and unusual 'zig-zag' design - this was intended to 'bounce' the sound back to the ground.

Land was compulsorily purchased for the motorway but when the road project was finally abandoned the block was already under construction, and thus Brixton ended up with the 'Barrier Block'.